WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The community is rallying to support the longtime managing director of Images Cinema after her job was eliminated late last year.

 

As of Thursday morning, a Gofundme campaign for Janet Curran had raised more than $12,500 from 90 contributors.

 

"I feel really held and supported by the community right now," Curran said this week. "I'm really moved that people appreciate the work that I did at Images."

 

Curran did that work for about a quarter of a century, first as a volunteer in 2000, then as an intern in 2002 and finally as the managing director, a position she held since 2007.

 

"If you've been to Images Cinema in the last 25 years … you've probably been helped by her, welcomed by her, or had a conversation with her that you still think about," the creators of the Gofundme campaign wrote.

 

"Janet is one of those people who makes a place worth living in. She's kind without making a show of it, dependable in a way many people aren't, and she has given more to this community than she'd ever say herself."

 

Two days before Thanksgiving 2025, Curran learned from the Spring Street theater's board of directors and Executive Director Dan Hudson that her position was being eliminated. Her last day at the non-profit movie house was Jan. 2.

 

"They told me that Images was too small an organization to have two directors, and the finances were such that they needed to eliminate my position," Curran said. "I had no inkling that this restructuring was coming.

 

"I was offered a position focused on bar and lounge operations that required a number of bartending shifts each week. This new position had a lower salary with fewer benefits."

 

Curran served as managing director under three different executive directors at Images. The theater's current head said changing economics in the film industry played a role in the board's decision to cut Curran's post.

 

Hudson said Thursday it was not a decision that the Images board took lightly.

 

"We, as a small nonprofit in the Berkshires … are not immune to all the cost increases and tourist attendance patterns and everything else," Hudson said. "We have been under some financial pressures, especially post-COVID, and had to closely evaluate as part of reopening what is the staffing structure to make us most nimble."

 

The theater's upcoming renovation — construction is underway — to add a second screen played a role in the need to restructure its staffing, Hudson said.

 

"The hours of operation will be increasing, so some of the frontline parts of the organization will be increasing," he said. "A brand-new business, in a sense, is opening. So what's the best way to make use of our limited payroll resources?

 

"It was a super challenging and difficult decision. The board came to the conclusion we couldn't continue to support two full-time director level positions."

 

After Curran's departure, the theater has two full-time employees: Hudson and Mary Redstone, its box office and membership manager.

 

Hudson said the board did consider how the community would respond to Curran's departure and did hear from members when it became known that she was no longer going to be employed at Images.

 

"We absolutely knew … it would be disruptive, especially for folks for whom Janet was a public face if not their main association for the organization or touchstone for the organization," Hudson said. "At the end of the day, the board felt the fiduciary responsibility of the organization as being cautious and careful with our payroll outweighed that.

 

"There were some community members, around the time Janet was stepping away from the organization, who expressed concerns. Myself and members of the board listened to those community members … and shared the rationale for why the decision was made."

 

Anna Moriarty Lev and Katherine Lee-Cohen created the Gofundme page, "to help [Curran] cover her rent and basic expenses while she waits on unemployment and figures out her next move."

 

Curran said she hopes that next move will be close to home.

 

"I am currently looking for other non-profit/cultural/community outreach positions and also taking the time to focus on my art practice," she wrote in an email responding to questions for this article. "There are many great organizations in the area, so I hope to find a job locally."

 

Wherever she ends up, it is clear that her time at Images touched her as deeply as she touched those who have offered help during her transition.

 

"I'm heartbroken and disappointed," Curran said. "I miss being part of a community organization that felt like a family. When I celebrated my 20-year anniversary three years ago, I said I had been looking for a place to belong my whole life, and I found it at Images."